Lion Brewery

The Pooj is the king of the urban jungle.

(Rocket Fizz Pasadena, October 2011)

As I mentioned in an earlier post, Lion Brewery is the same company that produces the Olde Philadelphia line of soft drinks. The actual Lion Brewery portion of the company is the second largest beer brewery in the state of Pennsylvania. Since its inception in Wilkes-Barre in 1905 as the Luzerne County Brewing Company (renamed to Lion Brewery in 1909), it has grown to become the 15th largest American-owned brewing company in the country (and thus possibly the world). Currently, in addition to the Olde Philadelphia sodas, the company produces beer under the Lion’s Head and Stegmaier labels and a single soft drink under the Lion Brewery label – Lion Brewery Root Beer.

Now if you recall, I wasn’t particularly impressed with Olde Philadelphia Root Beer, and I’m sad to say that I’m only slightly more impressed with Lion Brewery Root Beer. There’s no head to speak of, and what little there is fades fast – not what I’d expect from a root beer that claims to be "draught style." While I realize that “draft style” should really only mean that it’s served from a pressurized cask or keg, if all you’re saying is that your soda is pressurized, why call it “draft/draught style” at all, considering that every other soda out there is technically also pressurized? Most other “draft/draught style” brews at least feature some sort of head, so I’m operating from that perspective. Unless all Lion Brewery means is that their root beer is brewed, filtered, and gassed with both carbon dioxide and nitrogen as with draft/draught style beers (that do in fact feature a thick creamy head), which could very well be true but I can’t confirm at this point in time, I expect at least something distinct to distinguish it from just out-of-a-can style root beer.

But I digress. Lion Brewery Root Beer has a slight root-y scent upon opening that all but disappears halfway through the bottle. The root-y flavor is also rather slight – not bland, but not particularly strong either, more like a slightly more licorice-y, slightly less sweet IBC. A more generous description of the taste would be that it is crisp, with the ever-so-slight citrus-ish tang that you often get with cola and a slightly watery aftertaste.

Given that the word of the day appears to be “slight,” I’d say that Lion Brewery Root Beer is slightly unremarkable. That’ll equate to a low 3.

If you’ve read this far, here’s some bonus-Pooj as your reward:

The Pooj holds court with one of his subjects.